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Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia on Wednesday confirmed plans for a new airport in conjunction with a port in Anaklia, a small settlement on the Black Sea coast, on the border with Abkhazia.

Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, who visited Anaklia with Infrastructure Minister Davit Narmania, said it is important to develop the area along the coast and it is important that it happens close to Abkhazia.

“Developing these areas, infrastructure of international standards and progress cannot be uninteresting for our Abkhaz brothers,” he said, and expressed hope that Anaklia will become a large port.

He added that consulting companies from Japan are studying the area and there are several projects in the Anaklia port.

The Ministry of Economy also outlined the plans in a new statement.

“The airport will have special opportunities for transit of goods,” the statement says.

Constructing a port and an airport will contribute to creating new jobs, boosting the transit of goods through Georgia and further development of the country’s transit potential.

The plan is a modified version of a plan by ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, who wanted to build an entirely new city with half a million people on a swamp, a plan deemed an unreasonable waste of money by the opposition.